Read then of faith; That shone above the fagot,

 

 

Read, Sweet, How Others Strove

Read, sweet, how others strove,

Till we are stouter;

What they renounced,

Till we are less afraid;

How many times they bore the faithful witness,

Till we are helped As if a kingdom cared.

Read then of faith

That shone above the fagot,

Clear strains of hymn

The river could not drown,

Brave names of men

And celestial women

Passed out of record

Into renown.

Emily Dickinson, “Read, Sweet, How Others Strove,” in Complete Poems (Boston: Little, Brown, 1960), 119–20.

Did this destruction by fire destroy the the body of Christ or anneal his true church?
Individuals paid a heavy price to strengthen the church and greater Kingdom of God

 fag·ot

noun: faggot; plural noun: faggots; noun: fagot; plural noun: fagots

    a bundle of sticks or twigs bound together as fuel.

        a bundle of iron rods bound together for reheating, welding, and hammering into bars.

an·neal

verb past tense: annealed; past participle: annealed

    heat (metal or glass) and allow it to cool slowly, in order to remove internal stresses and toughen it.
        Biochemistry
        recombine (DNA) in the double-stranded form following separation by heat.